


come on and slam

by justicearcana (moondanse)



Category: Final Fantasy XIV
Genre: Aged-Up Character(s), Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, F/F, Getting to Know Each Other, Rivals to Lovers, Roller Derby, alisaie just wants her best friend to be happy, gaia is a simp
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-23
Updated: 2020-12-23
Packaged: 2021-03-10 17:49:17
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,219
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28251180
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/moondanse/pseuds/justicearcana
Summary: Gaia’s never seen a derby player with so little bulk to her bones, who moves with careful finesse rather than brute force.(Though that’s not to say that The Oracle lacks ferocity - Gaia had watched her full body slam someone nearly twice her size into the wall earlier. She hates to admit it, but she found it unbearably hot.)
Relationships: Gaia/Ryne | Minfilia
Comments: 6
Kudos: 44





	come on and slam

**Author's Note:**

> hi!!! this is my first ffxiv fic but i am so in love with my gay daughters so i had to write something for them. here's a little meet-cute au to celebrate square enix basically confirming them as canon. :') let's go lesbians let's go!
> 
> i don't know anything about roller derby, so sorry for any inaccuracies. the oracle and trauma queen are both names of real derby players, but this fic has no correlation to them. i just thought the names fit and couldn't think of anything else;;; fyi: each roller derby match (a "bout") takes place over two 30 minute sessions. each session is split into 2 minute long "jams," and players can rotate between jams. a jammer is the point scorer for the team, and their goal is to make it past the blockers. that's about all u need to know!
> 
> no spoilers besides character names, since this takes place completely outside of the ffxiv world.
> 
> enjoy!

“And The Oracle zooms past Kid Carnage, earning another point for the Ladies of Lakeland! This puts them in the lead with— _OOH!_ Ann R. Key slams into The Oracle, effectively blocking her from another point! 30 more seconds left in this jam…”

Gaia winces at the sound of impact from where she sits on the bench. She’s all too familiar with the feeling of being body slammed into someone else, and that looked like a particularly painful check. She watches with interest as the opposing team’s jammer - The Oracle - shakes it off and tries to duck underneath the arms of a few of their blockers. 

The girl is small, lithe. Her limbs are long and she moves with the grace of someone trained in figure skating, not roller derby. Gaia had noticed her immediately - if not for her particularly delicate looking frame, then for the shock of orange hair tied up into a ponytail on her head. They’ve never played against this team before. Gaia’s never seen a derby player with so little bulk to her bones, who moves with careful finesse rather than brute force.

(Though that’s not to say that The Oracle lacks ferocity - Gaia had watched her full body slam someone nearly twice her size into the wall earlier. She hates to admit it, but she found it unbearably hot.)

It’s intriguing. Gaia can’t help but stare.

The current jam ends and another begins. Gaia’s teammate and close friend, Alisaie, sidles up next to her and passes her a water bottle. They’ll be up soon, after the first half ends. Her whole body thrums with energy. She can’t wait to get out there.

“She’s good, isn’t she?” Alisaie says, nodding towards The Oracle. “I see why they call her The Oracle. She’s crazy good at reading the rink.”

“Yeah,” Gaia responds, sucking in a sharp breath as two of their blockers try to crowd the other team. It’s weird - somehow she feels more nervous for The Oracle than for her own teammates. She doesn’t allow herself time to dissect what that means.

Alisaie tilts her head, giving her a knowing look. “Pretty, too,” she says.

She lets out a wistful sigh. “Yeah.”

It’s not until Alisaie starts snickering next to her that Gaia realizes what she’s just said. Her cheeks flush pink and she turns to face her friend with a frown.

“What?” she huffs. “You said it first.”

Alisaie laughs. “Yeah, but only because I knew you were thinking it,” she says. “Don’t think I haven’t noticed you staring. You’ve practically got hearts glued to your eyes with how you’ve been watching her.”

“I do not!”

“Sure you don’t. And I’m not a twin, but rather one of many clones manufactured in some far away alien laboratory.”

“I’m going to tell Alphinaud that you called him an alien.”

“Go ahead,” Alisaie snorts. Her eyes follow the movement out on the rink, where their own team is starting to pick up some momentum. She pauses before continuing: “He knows her, you know. _The Oracle._ He could introduce you.”

Gaia nearly chokes on her water. This isn’t something she expected; The Oracle was simply meant to be someone to admire, to think back on in a month when she’s feeling lonely and sentimental. She isn’t supposed to be someone to _know._ And yet here Alisaie is, claiming that Alphinaud _knows_ her.

“Oh,” Gaia answers, nonchalant, trying to play it cool. “That’s nice.”

Alisaie lets out another half-laugh, half-snort. Gaia wonders if she knows how annoying that is. Knowing Alisaie, she probably does. She’s probably doing it on purpose - that brat. 

“Very nice,” Alisaie says. She wiggles her eyebrows a little, and Gaia resolves in that moment to find a new, less irritating best friend. “And I’ve heard she’s nice, as well. Do you like nice girls, Gaia?”

By now her cheeks must be flaming red. Gaia chocks it up to the heat of too many bodies around them and the adrenaline of the sport. 

“Shut up,” she mumbles. Then, almost as if it's an act of mercy, a sharp whistle signals the end of the first half. Alisaie’s teasing laughter is quickly drowned out by the sounds of the two teams coming together, the familiar rumble of strategy and debrief filling the air.

Gaia takes a deep breath, and stands to join her teammates. No more thinking about The Oracle. It’s time to get her head in the game.

***

In a stroke of luck (or unluck?), The Oracle is on the bench when it’s Gaia’s turn out on the rink. She’s thankful for the lack of distraction - as pretty as she may be, no girl is worth jeopardizing her team’s win. At least this is what she keeps telling herself as she skates.

The first few jams pass by quickly. The jammer they put in for The Oracle is nowhere near as impressive, but they’ve managed to score enough points to keep up their lead. Gaia feels the frustration and desire to win bubbling up inside of her. But there’s something else there, as well. Something that feels like an intense need to impress.

A flash of orange catches the corner of her eye.

Gaia surges forward, forming a wall with Alisaie to block the other team from moving. The announcer’s voice barely registers in her ears overhead.

“Trauma Queen and Ruby Ripper are walling up! This seems to be their signature move, as it’s stopped plenty of jammers in the past…”

Fifteen minutes later and Gaia is back on the bench, breathing heavily. Her eyes instinctively move to the other side of the rink, towards the flash of orange she saw earlier. To her surprise, The Oracle is staring back. They lock eyes for a moment before Gaia ducks her head, embarrassed to be caught looking. Next to her, Alisaie raises a brow.

Gaia coughs, then downs half of her water bottle out of stress.

“Don’t say a word,” she bites.

Alisaie giggles. “Wasn’t going to.”

***

The bout ends with a win for the Ladies of Lakeland. Gaia tries not to let the disappointment get to her. So far it’s been surprisingly easy, maybe because their loss means The Oracle’s win, and the smile on her face had been enough to offset the pain of defeat. 

Alisaie, however, is less satisfied with the outcome.

“We were so close,” she complains, pulling her helmet off and shaking out her hair. Gaia’s nose scrunches in distaste as a fleck of sweat lands on her cheek. “If we’d called the last few jams a little bit sooner, we could have overtaken them.”

Gaia listens to her rant about all of the things they did wrong and all the things they should have done instead as they change out of their derby gear. A shower is definitely needed, but like many of the girls on the team, she’d rather risk smelling than brave an ice-cold locker room shower with grimy soap that sticks to your skin for days. For now, she lathers on a healthy amount of deodorant and hopes that it will hold her over until she gets home.

Once she and Alisaie are all dressed, they head back out to the lobby. Gaia hardly has time to prepare herself before Alisaie is calling out to someone.

“Ryne!” she yells, waving her arms wildly above her head. Gaia sneers - being best friends with Alisaie is _so_ embarrassing, sometimes - but the frown quickly falls off her face as she realizes what’s happening.

The Oracle - _Ryne,_ her brain supplies - approaches them with a bright smile. Her orange hair is freshly washed and pulled into a bun on the top of her head, and her derby uniform has been swapped out for a simple white sundress. Suddenly, Gaia wishes she’d taken that ice-cold shower. 

“Alisaie, hey!” Ryne responds, and _oh god,_ her voice is just as pretty as her face. Gaia feels her whole body heat up. She pointedly looks away to avoid gawking like a drooling schoolboy.

“Hey,” Alisaie says. Gaia can hear from the teasing tone of her voice that she is not safe here. Her eyes quickly locate the concession stand, and she makes way to escape— “This is Gaia. She was really impressed with your plays earlier. Congrats on the win, by the way.”

Too late. Gaia sucks in a breath and turns to face her doom.

“Oh, hi! Thank you so much!” Ryne chirps. “You were really great too. Trauma Queen, right? Cool name.”

Gaia nods. “Aha, yeah,” she says. She does her best to ignore how Alisaie is obviously straining to hold back her laughter. But hey, at least she’s trying. “Thanks. You too.”

Ryne tucks a flyaway strand of hair behind her ear. “Thanks,” she parrots, smiling. Gaia feels her heart clench in her chest. “God, I’m starving. I was going to go grab some coffee biscuits after this; would you guys like to come with?”

“Coffee biscuits? What’s that?”

She regrets the words as soon as they leave her mouth. Way to sound like an idiot, Gaia. This time, Alisaie really _does_ laugh.

Traitor.

“Oh my goodness,” Ryne gasps, her eyes blown wide with surprise. “You’ve never had coffee biscuits before? Then you have to come! They’re like, only the best sweets in the world.”

Gaia tries not to grimace. Really, she does. But sweets aren’t exactly her thing. Alisaie knows this, and yet she seems to be urging her on with subtle body language. _Go, you stupid lesbian,_ her eyes say. _If you can lose a bout for a girl, then you can eat a damn cookie._

“Okay,” Gaia says, clearing her throat. Next to her, Ryne cheers.

“Thanks for the invite, but I have to pass,” Alisaie says. Gaia whips her head around in disbelief. _Now hang on—_ “I told Alphie I’d help him with something as soon as we were finished. Can’t miss it, very important.”

Ryne nods, taking the bait without question. Gaia watches her best friend skip away and vows to get her revenge the next time Alisaie crushes on someone. She knows she should be thankful, but at the moment the only thing she can feel is betrayal. 

“Shall we go?” Ryne asks. The question is light and hopeful, sung like a melody, and the betrayal of Alisaie’s abandonment is instantly replaced with a fluttering in her gut.

“Sure,” Gaia says. She offers Ryne a small smile and follows her out the door, hoping to God she doesn’t fuck this up.

***

They end up at a cute little cafe less than a mile from the rink, one Gaia has seen several times in passing but never ventured inside. She’s usually not one to frequent such places, if the black of her clothes and the dark makeup lining her eyes is any indication of her preferences. She feels out of place surrounded by the bright pinks and whites of the cafe, but Ryne looks thrilled to be there, so she doesn’t mind too much.

“I can’t believe you’ve never come here,” Ryne gushes, swirling the straw of her milkshake around and around. “It’s like, _the_ meetup spot for a lot of roller girls in the area. Since it’s so close to the rink, and all.”

Gaia shrugs, nibbling at her coffee biscuit. She tries not to overthink what _meetup spot_ means - date spot? Totally platonic hangout spot? Who knows.

“I’m not really close with my teammates,” she admits. “Except Alisaie, of course.”

Ryne nods. “I get that,” she says. “Me too, actually. I usually come here alone. Though I’m actually kind of surprised we haven’t met before? You guys use the same practice space as us, don’t you?”

They do. Gaia had found it odd herself that they’d never crossed paths before, especially considering Ryne is apparently friends with the twins. 

“Yeah,” she says. “It’s weird. But maybe we were supposed to meet on the rink, or something.”

Gaia’s never been one to believe in destiny, but if she’s going to fantasize about the perfect first meeting story to tell their future kids, then she’d like it to start with the skating rink.

“Maybe,” Ryne says. “Though we didn’t even play together today.”

“Okay, true.” Gaia isn’t sure how she would have played if they _had_ been on the track at the same time today. Being so close to Ryne, tasked with opposing her, might have proven particularly difficult in her lovesick haze. “I guess we’ll have to see how things go next time.”

“Good luck blocking me,” Ryne says with a grin. “I’m pretty good at getting past people’s defenses, you know.”

And oh, does she know. Ryne has managed to break down Gaia’s carefully built walls in less than two hours, and that’s not an easy feat to accomplish.

“Well, _Oracle,_ you haven’t seen me at my best yet.”

Ryne’s face lights up, and Gaia feels her heart flip in her chest. If this is what getting past her defenses feels like, then maybe she doesn’t want to win. Maybe she wants to see how far Ryne can get, if she can wriggle her way into her heart and stay there.

“I guess this is game on, then,” Ryne laughs.

Gaia can’t help but laugh back. “Yeah,” she says, lifting her milkshake in cheers. “Game on.”

  
  


**Author's Note:**

> scream with me about 5.4 on my [gaming twt](http://twitter.com/druidcraft)!


End file.
